Dreaming isn’t going to keep Lake Erie alive

You’ve lived in Michigan long enough to have heard all the weather jokes. If you love the weather today, wait until tomorrow; it will likely snow. If you think this is bad, wait 10 minutes.

We’re used to our capricious and variable weather, all its moods. Some of us even like it. Who could live in one of those places without seasons, never having to scrape a windshield but having to pay attention to the wildfire forecast?

It’s that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The results are the same every year; only the depth and location of the potholes change from season to season.

We keep our lakes alive the same way.

The poisonous algae blooms that turn Lake Erie into a toxic soup every recent summer and fall are mainly grown on farms, and like every crop, they depend on the weather. Forecasters expect a severe bloom this year in western Lake Erie, with the same disastrous effects on the lake, wildlife and human health as the worst outbreaks in 2011 and 2014.

They base the forecast both on summer wind and temperature patterns and on what happened in the spring. And spring is key. Winter freezes farmland and makes it impermeable. Heavy and frequent spring rains wash fertilizers and manure off farm fields and into the rivers that feed Lake Erie.

Lake Erie isn’t alone. Satellite photos show the same algae buildup in Lake St. Clair already this summer, and warm, shallow areas of all the Great Lakes and inland lakes can be affected.

We know that 85 percent of the nutrients that are killing Lake Erie are washing off agricultural land in the spring. How do we prevent another 2014, when Lake Erie was too toxic for treatment plants?

We pretend bluebirds will trill in the spring sunshine and farmers’ fertilizer and manure will stay where they put it.

Walt Disney weather and voluntary standards for controlling agricultural runoff are not working. Mandatory regulations and enforced compliance is the only route to different results.